In my ILD831 class for Creighton University this week, my 12 students will be looking at digital tools. Using Jane Hart’s C4LPT Top 200 list as a starting point, they self-selected the following tools to explore and analyze from a leadership perspective (number indicates rank on the Top 200 list):

It is always interesting to consider the tools not selected by students as those selected. Jane this year has divided her Top Tools into three sub-lists – Personal Learning, Workplace Learning, and Education – and noted the following:

“Individuals continue to reap the benefits of the opportunities offered to them on the Web to learn in all kinds of ways – both planned and unplanned, formal and informal, through content and people, online or on smart devices.

Education is also making use of a wide range of multi-purpose web-based tools – probably because they are free and easy to use – alongside dedicated educational tools.

Workplace learning, however, is still largely dominated by the use of traditional commercial tools for creating, delivering and managing e-learning. However, there is increasing use of new-style content development tools and greater use is being made of tools for social collaboration (and social learning) within work teams and groups.”

My class has business and non-profit executives, teachers and education administrators, military, corporate trainers, and healthcare managers. What I will find interesting is not what tools they chose or how they might use them, but “why?” they might make a choice. As an interdisciplinary group, I know we will learn from each other.

I found Jane Hart’s observations in each sub-group insightful. Professionals reported to her that they were using digital tools to search and research the web, learn from others, aggregate and curate resources, store and sync their various files, and increase their productivity, using a variety of smart devices. They reported a lot of experimentation on their own before they might bring a tool into the workplace or education.

In workplace learning, it was interesting and somewhat comforting that the number one tool was still Powerpoint. As my students know from watching my class videos, I lean towards Prezi myself, but Powerpoint has advantages, not the least being accessibility. Workplace tools included authoring tools, asset development tools (like infographics that I have played with), course management tools, and webinar tools. There is increasing use of time-line authoring tools, audience response tools, social tools, and web conferencing tools. I found it interesting that Jane noted the decreased use of FREE tools.

The opposite trend appeared in education, where free tools continue to be widely used along with commercial products. Tools that increased interactivity were particularly popular.

After 10 years of reporting the top tools, one thing that remains in my thinking is that tools come and go, but the processes seem to become more focused and defined. The specific tool is always less important than how and why it is being used. I look forward to hearing what my students have to say this week!

3 Responses

One of the details that stuck with me as I have developed my digital tool box if the idea that we should be navigating from exploration to usage and then to creation. I wonder where in andragogy this concept would fit? How long should one continue to use and repurpose another’s work before the learner is comfortable being the creator?

The concept of being digitally literate, I hope, it reconsidering the concept of digital natives. When I ask people if digital skills and knowledge are piped into the nursery of those born during a digital time frame, others begin to recognize how absurd the concept of a native might be. Once individuals remove this road block, new tools begin to emerge.

You are an amazing prezi maker. I hope that your students will begin to consider other ways to capture the attention of their learners. The right tool for the right concept is always worth the conversation.

I hope that the conversation from your course will continue after the students leave through audio!

This week has opened me up to a number of tools I had never even heard of. It’s interesting, I have asked many of my coursemates why they chose the tools which they did. I think you learn a lot by asking which tools one is drawn to.

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I am Britt Watwood, an online teacher recently retired from Northeastern's Center For Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research. My passions are networked learning and using web technology for learning. I currently teach graduate courses at Northeastern University and Creighton University.
DISCLAIMER: I am a product of my personal learning network and my thoughts are impacted by the many people locally and virtually with whom I have contact. However, the views expressed here in this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the institutions for whom I teach.